Peanut Butter Bacon Cookies

So I know that I promised non-peanut butter cookies this time around, but when I get a cookie challenge, I can’t turn it down. Peanut butter and bacon was the challenge this time around. I browsed a bunch of different recipes on various blogs, and settled on this variation. I had played around with the idea of adding chocolate chips or covering the chocolate in bacon, but I figured let’s keep it simple for my first foray baking with bacon. On the plus side, these are gluten free! So while my nut-allergy brother can’t indulge in these, my celiac mom can 🙂

Ingredients:

• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 8 slices cooked bacon, chopped up
• Extra granulated sugar for rolling the cookies in (about 1/2 cup)

Step 1: Fry up some bacon. Make sure you get it nice and crispy, but not burnt. I just went with regular hickory smoked bacon because I’ve never baked with Bacon before I wasn’t sure how applewood smoked or honey maple flavors would mix in, so I stuck to the basics, but maybe I’ll experiment next time. Always be sure to let the bacon sit on paper towels to drain the excess fat.

Step 2: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In the mixer, mix together the brown sugar and white sugar.

Step 3: Add in one cup of creamy peanut butter. Don’t use the all natural kind because it’s too oily and won’t get the dough to the right consistency. Also a helpful tip when dealing with peanut butter, spray the measuring cup first with some nonstick spray and that will help the peanut butter get out of the cup later on.

Step 4: Add in baking soda and egg and mix well for about two minutes.

Step 5: Chop the crispy bacon into small pieces and add to the mixture. Beat for about a minute.

Step 6: Roll the dough into teaspoon-size balls. Again, I use the melon scooper for even cookies. The dough will feel a bit oily compared to normal chocolate chip cookie dough.  This next step is optional, but adds a nice sweetness. Roll the cookie dough balls in the sugar and then put on a parchment lined cookie sheet.

Step 7: Using a fork, press the cookies in a criss-cross pattern.

Step 8: Bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. Keep an eye on these. When I took them out of the oven I had to let them sit on the tray for 5 minutes in order to transfer them to cool

So there you have it. My first baking with bacon adventure. And gluten free for you mom.